Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa, Kobina Tahir Hammond (KT Hammond), has reacted to claims that he and members of the Energy Committee of the House in 2015 were bribed in the AKSA Energy deal.

A statement by the United States (US) State Department, which announced the conviction of former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Asante Berko, over paying bribes of over $1 million to officials of the government of Ghana, indicated that members of the Energy Committee were given a bribe of $46,000 to see the deal between Ghana and AKSA Energy through.

Reacting to this claim in an interview on Citi News on August 10, 2026, KT Hammond, who was the chairperson of the Energy Committee at that time, indicated that he and the members of the committee could not be induced with such an amount of money.

"For the sake of all that is making the rounds, people are taking one million..., and then the suggestion is that KT Hammond, and his [committee] we took about, $500 [each], because the money is supposed to be $30,000. Then you hear $10,000 somewhere, then some $6,000; they round it up to $46,000," he said.

"We had 18 people in Parliament (Members on the Energy Committee), and then the Secretariat and all of that; are they suggesting we shared that and each person got about $500 or $1,000 or something?" he asked.

"Is KT Hammond that bloody cheap? Is that it?" he asked.

KT Hammond, who is also the lawyer of former Power Minister Kwebena Donkor, who was in office at the time, said the work of Parliament is to approve deals in the interest of the country and not to sell them at the expense of the country.

He added that even after the committee approves deals, they are sent to the House for a final determination.

“… don't ask me any more questions on that because you upset me. I have told you that my committee had absolutely no knowledge about that. We do know that the document came to Parliament for ratification. What we do in Parliament is not a sale of documentation or not a sale of any business. Our mandated duty is to scrutinise documents and make sure that... think about it, we are only 28. We get 48, we only scrutinise and eventually take the document to the plenary of over 270 whatever people, 75, 76, so we take $46,000 for 30 something, and then what happens to the rest of the plenary, I mean, does this make sense?" he added.

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The documents, sighted by GhanaWeb on August 10, 2026, detail payments allegedly made to various individuals and groups, including officials linked to the Ministry of Power, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Parliament and the project’s technical team.

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They also outline specific amounts allegedly paid as bribes to Ghanaian officials in 2015.

According to the documents, one of the payments was a $500,000 wire transfer sent from Turkey to Ghana through New York in April 2015.

A second wire transfer of $1.5 million was allegedly made in May 2015, on the same day a senior Ghanaian official signed the power deal.

The documents also show that about five Ghanaian officials were each paid $5,000 to travel to Turkey to “inspect equipment”, in addition to the cost of their flights and hotel accommodation.

A further $140,000 payment was later made as a reimbursement settlement.

US prosecutors also relied on an email from August 2015 containing what they described as a breakdown of how the funds were to be distributed.

Tagged ‘The Itemised Bribe List’, the list included $20,000 for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), while a named Ghanaian official was allocated $10,000.

Another $20,000 was listed for what the email referred to as “MoP Girls”, which prosecutors said referred to staff of the Ministry of Power.

The breakdown also allegedly allocated $25,000 to the “Power Team” and $20,000 to GridCo engineers.

Parliament was listed to receive $30,000, with the email stating: “Parliament was all paid by Asante.”

The documents further showed that between $45,000 and $50,000 was allocated for travel and visas for the Turkey trip.

Another $35,000 was listed under “Asante personal”, which the documents described as Berko’s own cut.

The payments formed part of the evidence presented in the US prosecution of Berko, who was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, on August 6, 2026.

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